New investment in fruit fly management welcomed
The National Fruit Fly Council welcomes the announcement of further investment to strengthen the fruit fly management system.
Category: Horticulture
Vertical farming has limits
Vertical farming – where food is grown indoors in high stacks – will not replace traditional fruit and vegetable growing in New Zealand, but it may supplement it in future if technology makes it economically viable, research released finds.
Apple industry already growing jobs for new Horticultural Degree graduates
New Zealand’s booming apple and pear industry is already promising great career opportunities for the first graduates of a new stand-alone Bachelor’s Degree in Horticulture.
Genome mapping for trees critical to Australian horticulture
A new $13.3 million joint research project will look at tree genetics to better understand how genes control traits that are valuable to Australian horticultural growers.
The naked avocado
Avocado aficionados will benefit from a Queensland research project that aims to strip bare the avocado to reveal detailed information about the popular fruit’s biology.
Improving fruit quantity and quality
A research team has been working to develop technologies that can help farmers improve their yields and potentially automate on‑farm processes.
Jack Mooney – A Growing Passion
The adage “from little things, big things grow” certainly applies to University of New England (UNE) PhD student Jack Mooney, who has swapped the backyard greenhouse of his undergraduate days for one of the largest glasshouses in the Southern Hemisphere.
Kiwifruit doubled its vitamin C genes twice
The kiwifruit, a member of the Chinese gooseberry family, contains about as much vitamin C as an orange. This extra boost in vitamin C production is the result of the kiwifruit’s ancestors’ spontaneously duplicating their DNA in two separate evolutionary events approximately 50-57 million and…
Latest vegetable farm survey shows incomes increase further in 2017-18
Australian vegetable-growing farms: an economic survey 2016–17 and 2017–18 shows a 12 per cent increase in cash income for Australian vegetable farms to $319,000 per farm in 2017-18.
Modern breeding could make apples red inside and out
Want to try a furry apple with red flesh? Kiwi scientists say modern plant breeding techniques that mimic changes to DNA made in nature – such as CRISPR-Cas9 — will allow us to easily change how fruit and veg look, feel, taste and nourish us.
New high-tech drones target Aussie vineyards
Drones equipped with machine learning and hyperspectral cameras could become a new weapon for the grape industry.
Diagnose plant diseases quicker and more accurately
Victoria’s ability to protect its $2.3 billion horticulture industry against devastating bacterial plant diseases is now even more robust thanks to Agriculture Victoria’s world-leading bioscience capabilities.